Sylvia McCarthney of Saylorsburg has a message for the U.S. Postal Service about its suggestion to end Saturday mail delivery: Return to sender.

CHAD SMITH

Sylvia McCarthney of Saylorsburg has a message for the U.S. Postal Service about its suggestion to end Saturday mail delivery: Return to sender.

"What about people who do business on Saturdays?" McCarthney said. She said her husband works six days a week as an excavator and often depends on sending and receiving mail on Saturdays.

Saturday mail delivery has been a part of life in the U.S. since the 1800s. But the postal service says it is in financial straits due to the widespread use of email and online bill-paying, and the decline in direct-mail advertising.

President Barack Obama said in a speech Monday that he supported the idea of ending Saturday mail delivery as a way for the postal service to save money. But some Pocono customers hope the death of Saturday service can be avoided.

"It's kind of nice knowing that you might still get something in the mail on Saturday," said Brynne Kaizay, also of Saylorsburg. Kaizay said she often sends mail to her family in Virginia on Thursdays with the hopes that it will reach them on Saturday. "So they'll have something special on the weekend," she said.

And for customers like Lenny Bassknight, a commercial driver who often works in the middle of the night, Saturday is often the only day he can reach the post office.

For the postal service to go to five-day delivery, Congress must first give its approval.

At the Stroudsburg post office, the postmaster, Derrick Strothers, said customers' reactions to the possibility that Saturday delivery would be cut have been mixed.

But another postal service worker at the Stroudsburg post office, who asked not to be named, disagreed and said, "The people have been saying they want their Saturday delivery."

The postal service began home delivery in the 1860s, and at that time delivered six days a week.

The postal service, which has already commissioned studies on five-day delivery and has concluded that Saturday would be the best day to cut, hasn't said how many jobs would be lost if Saturday service was ended.

Postal service spokesman Ray Daiutolo said he didn't believe full-time employees would be affected, but part-time and temporary employees might be.

Some said it was just symptomatic of the times.

"Look at the economy. We're all suffering," said Chestnuthill Township resident Georgia Klinger. "If this is what needs to be done, so be it. I'll send my mail all the other days of the week."

And Stroudsburg resident Fran Surma had a similar thought: "If I have to cut back, why don't they?"

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